Ginny's Truth
by KrAzYkEwLgUrL
Summary: Normal, plain Ginny never suspected that her family had been hiding a secret from her. But now blending in is no longer an option. Ginny must face her worst fears, new and old enemies, and most important of all, the truth. HG DHr
1. Secret Revealed

Okay, I think this story is going to be a bit different than my other ones. For instance, this time Ginny will be the main character. I don't really know why I decided to use Ginny for once. Maybe it's because she's an easy character to work with, I mean the books don't really say much about her personality. Plus, I've seen stories with plots that are similar (but not the same) as this story, but Hermione is always the main character. Not to say that there aren't any with Ginny, I've just never seen them before. Oh well, hope you like the story!

I, Ginny Weasley, was always what most people call shy. At age 16, I truly believed that shy was another word for smart. Many people believe that calling attention to themselves will get them everything they want. Fame, money, respect, those are only some things that you can get from speaking up.

I, however, saw the truth. That information was way more important than anything else.

The trick was learning how to blend in. To be in a room, yet not be noticed at all. People will say anything they want, if they can't see you. No, this does not mean that you have to use an invisibility cloak and turn yourself invisible. My way was much, much easier.

Think about it for a second, in a rich household, does the family pay any attention to a servant? The answer is no. A family member could give away a huge secret right in front of a servant and not care. Why? Because to that person, the servant is too unimportant to be noticed. The servant could tell everyone that she knows this secret, and the family member would still never suspect that the servant had heard anything.

This is basically what I did. I was never noticed, not even by my brothers, unless I wanted to be. I made myself seem unimportant, no one to worry about, and therefore, no one cared if I just stood there listening to every word they said.

I would never right out tell anyone that I knew his or her secret, or threaten anyone. That would just make me feel horrible. Instead, I sent anonymous notes, anything really, to let them know that someone knew one of their deepest, darkest secrets.

In that way, I was entertained. No, it's not as bad as it sounds. And I didn't really do it to benefit myself or anything like that. It was mostly because of the fact that helping other people actually makes you feel like you have friends, even if you don't. Not that I wanted friends, I just wanted to help people without the other complications of friendship.

I never sent mean anonymous notes to people unless their secret involved them doing something bad. If that happened, I would threaten them, telling them that if I found out their secret, surely someone else could. Sometimes they even sent me notes back, thanking me for stopping them from screwing up their lives.

And otherwise, I gave the person advice on how to handle their problem or secret. By my third year, I had a steady line of people whose secrets I had found out, that were owling me with problems.

You could actually say that I was the school advice person. I even had a name they could call me, Hidden Mystery. Many people had tried to guess why I picked that name. I laughed whenever I read that yet another person had asked, because to tell the truth, I only picked it because I thought it sounded completely not like me. Who would guess that Hidden Mystery was really Ginny Weasley, the youngest Weasley and only girl, and most utterly plain girl that you could ever meet? No one would ever guess.

People had actually begun to think that it was an honor if they received a message from me. And many people even told their friends about me. I loved the feeling. It meant that people really trusted me to keep their secrets.

If I could say one good thing about myself, it would be that I could be trusted. Any secret, no matter how big or small, would never leave my lips unless the person himself wished that I shared it.

I never really thought of myself ever needing to trust someone else with a secret. This is because, as shocking as it might sound, in my whole life I've only had one big secret. That was of course in my first year at Hogwarts, when Voldemort possessed me. Back then I didn't even have a choice to tell anyone, since whenever I tried Voldemort somehow prevented me from saying it out loud.

But besides that, absolutely no secrets or problems at all. People called me the untalented, boring, and plainest member of the Weasley family. They were pretty much right. That's why it was always so easy to blend in.

I should have guessed that no one could possibly be that normal. Everyone has one or two secrets stashed away somewhere, or some unusual thing about them.

It was on July 1st, which had always been my worst favorite day of the year, that my whole world came crashing down. I'd hated that day since I was three, and sick of being told how cute I was. You see, on the 1st of July, every single year, no matter how hard I tried not to be, I was always the center of attention. Why, someone might ask? Three words. It's. My. Birthday.

In my head, those were the three most dreaded words. Ones that I desperately wished I never had to say. Unfortunately, it came every year, no matter how much I didn't want it to. It was a day of torture, I tell you, absolute torture.

And that year it was even worse than usual. It was my 16th birthday. I had this humongous cake, and my whole family was there, including aunts, uncles, annoying cousins (which is basically a lot of people), family friends (half of them are complete strangers to me), and of course, Harry Potter and Hermione Granger.

My mother kept on asking me if I wanted to invite anyone else, but I said no. The only other person I would even think of inviting is Neville Longbottom, but my parents had already invited him and his grandmother.

Besides Neville, Harry, Hermione, and of course Ron, everyone at school pretty much fell into one of two categories (with the exception of Luna Lovegood, who was always way too hard to put into any category). People who hated me and people who didn't know that I existed. I like to say that more people just didn't know that I existed. The only people who hated me were basically the Slytherins (well, all the ones that knew that I was a Weasley), and my ex-boyfriends.

I know what you're thinking, because it really doesn't seem like I'm the kind of girl who'd want a boyfriend. And to tell you the truth, I didn't really want to date either of them.

You see, in my fourth year I decided that I was going to try to stop being shy. Back then, I thought it was a brilliant idea. Now I look back and think that I was a complete idiot. It was, to put it short, the worst year of my life. Sure, it was kind of nice at times, being actually noticed for the first time in my life. But by the end of the year, I began to long for the quiet life that I had led before. In my fifth year, I went back to being shy, though I did keep my position on the Quiditch team.

The boyfriend part was really an accident. Literally. I bumped into Michael Corner in a hallway, causing both of us to fall over. We introduced ourselves, and soon we were talking as if we'd known each other forever. For a few weeks we just kept on seeing each other and chatting for a little. Then he asked me out. What could I say, I was trying to be more outgoing, and a boyfriend would really help me meet more new people. Plus, I was still trying to completely get over a highly embarrassing crush on Harry Potter. However, things turned out much worse than I expected.

Dating Michael was a complete disaster.

We probably have personalities that can work together well in short amounts of time, but after spending five hours listening to him go on about his pet owl, I knew that the relationship was not going to work.

I would have broken up with him, but pathetic as it is, I was too afraid. He ended up breaking up with me for some stupid reason, and I couldn't have been more relieved. In fact, I could go as far as to say that I was ecstatic. For some reason, Michael quite hated me for doing a victory dance of some sort the second after he broke up with me. Yes, it was in front of him. Well, whatever, it's not like I really care what he thinks about me.

Then came Dean Thomas. I really had no reason to say yes, not after screwing up one relationship. But it so happened that I had just gotten into a horrible fight with Ron. Ron is really one of the only people who can get me mad. Or at least he was for most of my life. So when Dean asked me, I thought that it would really annoy Ron, you know, since Dean is one of his friends, which is basically why I said yes.

I know, it sounds absolutely horrible of me, but I thought things would go better with someone from my own house. It didn't.

In the beginning it was okay. We got along, we had interesting conversations, but then my brothers decided to get involved. At first, it was only Ron threatening Dean. Dean told me about it, and I stupidly told Dean that it was nothing, just Ron being Ron.

But it wasn't only Ron. Ron told all of my other brothers (excluding Percy, who no one really liked much anymore), and over the summer they all sent absolutely terrible notes to Dean, telling him that he'd better break up with me. I think the real reason that Dean finally gave in was Fred and George. I mean, Dean was a Gryffindor, and really could be quite brave. But from what I heard (which isn't much because my brothers refused to tell me what they did), Dean was bombarded with tons of pranks. And when I say that, I don't mean harmless things like Canary Creams. Fred even let it slip that some new products were created just for Dean.

Needless to say, it's not surprising that Dean broke up with me with a nasty note, telling me that my brothers were absolutely crazy. And that he continued to hate me, even to this day.

So all in all, any relationship I entered ended in disaster. My fifth year was positively wonderful, being able to slowly slip back into my normal Hogwarts life.

But anyway, back to my 16th birthday party. I should have known that something bad would happen. So far, something has happened every year. But usually it was only small things, like my family actually forgetting that it was my birthday (I loved it, but my parents felt bad and gave me a party later anyway), or tripping down the stairs and breaking my leg (which was easily fixed with a small spell).

But this year was the worst. The worst by far. It started with Fred and George, though I suppose I really can't blame them. Not much anyway.

Everyone else gave me normal presents, you know, books, clothes, things I wanted. Fred and George however, decided to let me test one of their new products, which sounded more like torture to me, but I couldn't refuse in front of so many people. Besides, I had tried to convince myself, it was the thought that counted, right?

So there I was, in front of everyone, about to receive my last gift (if you could call it a gift). Everyone had quieted down. You couldn't even hear a sound in the usually loud room that my parents had somehow managed to rent for my party. I think they knew the owners of the place or something.

Fred began to explain what the product actually was. "The product that Ginny is about to test is called Personality Revealer. It shows us Ginny's personality. In other words, if Ginny is a very nice person she'll become quite beautiful." I glared at him for implying that I wasn't already beautiful. "Not that Ginny isn't good-looking already," he quickly said, "And if Ginny is a mean person… well the result won't be as nice."

By the expression on Fred's face, I could tell that it probably just made everyone who tried it look like a complete hag, or something along the lines of that.

"So in just a minute, we will all know Ginny's true personality." George added. "It will only last for about five minutes though." Then they handed me what looked like a small chocolate. I ate in one bite, preparing to be laughed at while my brothers attempted to sell the Personality Revealers, but nothing really could have truly prepared me for what happened.

It wasn't painful really, and the chocolate tasted good. Fred and George had already given me a mirror to look at after the transformation took place, so I took a look. What I saw completely shocked me. I didn't look like a hag. I looked like Narcissa Malfoy.

Seriously, I did. I had the same long blonde hair, the same delicate nose, and scariest of all, the very same eye-shape and mouth-shape.

I wouldn't have known that, I probably shouldn't have, but I had spent years being shoved pictures of the Malfoy family. First from my brothers, telling me to watch out for them when I got to Hogwarts. Then from the annoying girls that I shared a dorm with, who were all positively in love with Draco Malfoy, though I could never see why, and wanted me to give them advice on how to get themselves to look like Narcissa Malfoy, so they could impress the family. After years of seeing her pictures, plus actually seeing her in person at times, I knew every little detail about her facial features.

The only big differences that I could tell between the way I looked and the way she looked were that my face looked younger and my eyes were gray, not blue. But besides that, the resemblance was uncanny.

"Fred, why didn't it work? She's supposed to get all fat and pimply." I could hear George whisper.

And that was when I knew that something had gone very, very wrong.

If it was possible, the room had gotten even quieter. Ron broke the silence in the worst way possible. In other words, he made an awkward situation even more awkward.

"Ginny, I hate to tell you this, but you look exactly like a Malfoy." Ron said.

And then whispers broke out all around the room. Everyone was wondering why it hadn't worked. It wasn't hard to figure out that I was supposed to have turned hideously ugly. Just by the serious looks on the twins' faces, you could tell. They're never serious unless they absolutely have to be.

Of course, they tried to make it look like things had gone according to plan. "Don't worry folks," Fred said, "it will wear off in about five minutes. Our Ginny here won't look like a Malfoy for very long, thank god." And everyone laughed, trying to pretend that it was just a good joke. It didn't help that Fred sounded like he was trying to convince himself that nothing was wrong.

Five minutes passed, during which I looked at the clock at least twenty times. Finally, it was over. But it wasn't over. When I looked in the bathroom mirror, I still looked like Narcissa Malfoy. I waited ten more minutes, yet I still hadn't turned back into myself. That's when my parents found me.

Dad turned me around so that I was facing him. "Listen Ginny," he said, "me and your mother have something to talk to you about." I followed them to some little room, dreading what they had to tell me.

We all sat down on a comfy couch. Right about then, I felt like bursting into tears. But I didn't, I held them in.

Dad turned Mum. "Okay Molly, I suppose this is your story. Go on, might as well get it over with."

Mum began to speak. "Ginny, as you know, me and your father married right after we left Hogwarts."

"Yes, I know." I said, wondering what this had to do with me.

"I came from an old pureblood family, and I gave up a lot to marry him. My family disowned me, and they refused to give us any money at all. As his family was not as fortunate as mine, we had to survive without the comforts of being rich."

This I didn't know. I'd always thought that my grandparents on her side had just died early.

Mum continued. "Only one of my friends didn't completely abandon me. That friend was Narcissa Malfoy, or as I knew her, Narcissa Black."

By now I was in complete shock. As far as I knew, Mum and Narcissa Malfoy were complete opposites.

"After the marriage we had to keep our friendship a secret," Mum said, "after all, I knew that your dad wasn't very fond of most of the Blacks. After some years, Narcissa told me that she was marrying Lucius Malfoy.

"I was horrified, because I knew Malfoy, and he was the biggest piece of filth that I'd ever had the bad luck of meeting. But Narcissa was convinced that she loved him, so I supported her decision.

"The same year that I had Ron, Narcissa gave birth to Draco. That was when the trouble started. Lucius started to abuse her, and not allow her to spend much time with her son. Narcissa hated him for it. However, Narcissa knew that her family would disown her if she divorced him, and she would have to live on the streets. I would have let her live in my house, but there was no room and we barely had enough money to feed ourselves. Draco was not even a year old when Narcissa told me that she was pregnant again, this time with a little girl."

By now, I was putting the pieces together, and I didn't much like the final picture. In fact, my face was turning from mildly interested to terrified of how the story would end.

"Narcissa was dreadfully upset. She told me that she didn't want the girl to grow up in that household; she just couldn't bear having yet another person feel her pain every day. She already wished that she could take Draco away from Lucius, but it wasn't possible. Yet it was also against her own personal rules to abort the child, though she would if she needed to.

"Then I had an idea. I'd always wanted a girl, and once I already had so many kids, it wouldn't be that hard to raise another one. After discussing it quite a lot with your father, we had an ancient spell performed by Dumbledore. It was a spell that, as you might have guessed by now, transfers a baby from one woman to another. It could only work if the two women had a deep bond, and if there was a really good reason for the spell being used. Otherwise it would fail. It worked and about seven months later, you were born."

Then my mother, I couldn't bring myself to call her anything else, put her arm around me. I refused to believe it, there was simply no way that it could be true.

"But," I began, "If you were the one who had me, doesn't that make you my true mother?"

As I'd suspected, Mum shook her head. "No Ginny, the spell literally transferred the baby from her stomach to mine. Though I gave birth to you, you are still Narcissa and Lucius' daughter."

There it was, plainly spelled out for me. That I wasn't truly a Weasley, instead I was a Malfoy.

That was when it happened. I heard footsteps running away from the room. I groaned, how had we forgot to put a silencing spell on the room?

I heard a shrill voice screaming to the whole world, "Ginny's a Malfoy, Ginny's a Malfoy!" I recognized the shrill voice as the voice of my worst favorite cousin, Elizabeth. Elizabeth was eight years old and a complete monster. She caused chaos wherever she went. If a cousin who was a little older, or was a little smarter, or in fact any other cousin, had heard, they would have come in and questioned us about it, and we would have told them not to tell anybody. But no, it just had to be Elizabeth.

The worst part was that I still didn't want to believe it, not even after Elizabeth had told everyone. I was searching for ways to prove them wrong. "Mum, Dad, why would Fred and George's joke product turn me into my true form? It's just a joke after all? Oh, is that it? Are you all playing a joke on me? I knew it couldn't be true! But wow, this is some joke! Let's go explain to everyone that it's not true!"

This time, it was Dad who spoke. "The second you changed we looked for your brothers. From what we can gather, their product may have an unexpected effect of actually taking off any spells that change a person's looks, leaving you with the way you would look if there were no spells on you. No Ginny, this is not a joke."

The words kept repeating in my head. Even after I ran from the room, from my parents, from the truth. Soon, I was again in the bathroom.

"No Ginny, this is not a joke."

I tried to tune the words out, I tried so hard. I screamed, I cried, I did anything that might cause the words to leave my head. But they wouldn't go.

"No Ginny, this is not a joke."

And it kept getting louder.

"No Ginny, this is not a joke!"

And even louder.

"NO GINNY, THIS IS NOT A JOKE!"

Until I couldn't stand it any longer. I put my head in my hands and screamed louder than I'd ever screamed before. People tried to come in to comfort me, I shoved them away.

When the words faded, the images came. First I saw Mum and Dad, along with my brothers. We were so happy. The images also faded. I looked in the bathroom mirror, and though on the outside I saw an unfamiliar face, I could see a look of determination in my eyes. Even if I looked different, I knew that I was still, and always would be, Ginny Weasley.

I stopped crying. I no longer felt sad. I felt angry. I can't explain who or what exactly I was angry at, but I know that the Malfoy family was somewhere in there. I wanted to prove everyone wrong, to prove that I wasn't a Malfoy.

I knew what I would do. I would face the Malfoy family and tell them that I was not a Malfoy, even if I was technically part of their family. I would say that I preferred the Weasleys, and then I would leave as fast as possible.

Mum and Dad would be happy, they'd be proud that I'd chosen them over the Malfoys. My brothers would congratulate me, saying that now they would always have something to annoy Draco Malfoy about. Eventually, people would forget that I actually was a Malfoy.

This was just a silly dream. One that deep down I knew could never come true. Nothing would be the same, never again. Even if I somehow stood up to Lucius Malfoy without being killed in the process, and my family decided that I could still be a Weasley, other people wouldn't forget. They would always look down on me, say that inside I was still a Malfoy. And even worse, look down on my parents for raising me even though they knew that I wasn't really their daughter.

But for the minute I let myself dream. I walked out of the bathroom with my head high, ready to fight anyone who challenged my right to being a Weasley.

But no one did. Everyone, including me, acted as if nothing was wrong.

Just before I fell asleep later that night, one thought rang through my head.

Lucius Malfoy, you're not going to know what hit you!

Wow, that was the longest chapter I've ever written in any of my stories. I really, really hope that everyone likes it! Please, review and tell me if this story completely sucks, or if you actually liked it! Ideas are always welcome! Okay, now review!


	2. Meeting Malfoy

Thank you so much you guys! To the three people that have reviewed, Annabelle, Paige2310 and lacey, I love all of you! Okay, now on with the story.

The rest of the summer went horribly. No contest, the worst summer of my life. I wish I could say that my family had treated me normally, but only Fred and George were normal to me. Mum and Dad were almost normal, except for the fact that they spent WAY too much time asking if I was okay. It got tiring after a while.

My other brothers (excluding Ron, I'll talk about him later) were nice enough, just more distant than they regularly are and a little more careful about what they said in front of me. It didn't help that neither of my parents allowed me to go back to looking like a Weasley. They told me that eventually the Malfoys would want to meet me, and they would refuse to let me keep my red hair and brown eyes.

Harry didn't talk to me at all. Probably, I realized, because as the only person to defeat Voldemort he couldn't very well be a great friend with a Malfoy. That didn't stop it from hurting though. Especially since I couldn't seem to get over my crush on him, no matter how hard I tried.

Hermione on the other hand was great. She always talked to me, or tried to make me laugh. Over that summer we became better friends. But I realized that she couldn't spend all that much time with me. She had Harry and Ron, who are her best friends.

There were some very strange things that happened, and not just from my friends and family either. Slytherins who'd quite hated me before the whole mess suddenly sent me owls, declaring their sudden interest in meeting me for lunch somewhere, or even told me how much they regretted terrorizing me before.

The scariest one had to be when Pansy Parkinson sent me green and silver thong, telling me it was a welcome to the Malfoys gift, though according to Pansy it was hard to give up her favorite thong.

I laughed for ages after I received that owl, and I amused myself for even longer by slowly burning the thong. It was the most fun I had all summer.

Another part was all the presents I suddenly got, though I didn't get any more thongs. People I barely knew and even people I'd never met started sending me flowers, cards, and many other random things. It almost seemed like someone had died, except no one had. Though it did seem appropriate to mourn for Ginny Weasley.

Because there was no Ginny Weasley anymore, only Ginny Malfoy.

However, the worst part of my summer had to be, no doubt at all, Ron. Ron had always been my favorite brother. I was closest to him in age, and we were really always friends. But the revealing of my true parents was obviously something that he couldn't handle.

Ron has always hated Draco Malfoy. He was the exact opposite of Ron in every way. While Ron had to work to get what he wanted, Malfoy could have it in a snap of his finger. This has always bugged Ron, that Malfoy can be as mean and snobby as he likes, but in the end he'll get everything, while Ron could be charming and nice all the time and get nothing for his efforts.

I guess Malfoy stealing his sister (I'm sure that's what Ron saw it as), was the last straw. Ron didn't have Malfoy there to take his anger out on, so instead he took it out on me.

Ron bullied me for the whole summer. He taunted me, called me names. I was no longer Ginny, instead I became Malfoy. The worst was on one especially horrible day. Ron was already in a bad mood, so as usual he took it all out on me.

"Malfoy," he had said, "when are you going to go live with your real family, I'm getting sick of having to see slime like you every day."

"Ron," I'd pleaded, "please stop calling me Malfoy, please. You know I hate it. Come on, could you stop acting like I'm a different person just because I have a new last name!"

But he hadn't stopped. He'd continued to insult me, and I'd continued to ask him to stop. For hours. And hours. Finally I was so emotionally exhausted and fed up with Ron that I burst into tears and caused Ron to receive a lecture from Mum. Needless to say, his hearing suffered problems for quite a few hours. Mum can be VERY loud if she wants to.

About two weeks before I went back to school, The Letter came. Yes, it is necessary for me to use capitals. It looked like normal letter, but none of us were fooled. The second we saw an unfamiliar looking owl fly in, we knew exactly who The Letter was from. The Malfoys.

And of course The Letter was from them. The Letter suggested in polite words (though I could almost feel hostility radiating off The Letter), that I floo to their house the very next day to meet the family and stay with them until Hogwarts, while they gain permission from the Ministry of Magic to actually become my parents. Legally.

Of course, I begged not to go to their manor. I declared that I was not ready, I screamed and cried, I even threatened to curse my parents (bad idea, they weren't too happy with that one), but in the end I was still forced to go.

The next day was sunny and beautiful, completely reflecting my mood. NOT! If the weather had actually been reflecting my mood, there would be tons of rain and a sky filled with stormy gray clouds.

After way too little time, I was forced to leave. I hugged my parents, my brothers, (but not Ron) Hermione, and various other people who'd come to see me off, including most of the Order, though not Snape.

Then I left, leaving behind the last shreds of my life as Ginny Weasley.

Needless to say, the trip to Malfoy Manor was not pleasant. My thoughts could not get over the fact that I may have left my family behind forever. I didn't know if the Malfoys (or rather Lucius) would let me visit my family. And even if I could see them, would it ever be the same?

Soon, I was inside Malfoy Manor. The best word I can use to describe the place is big. Everything in the Manor was big. The room that I stepped into could fit the room my parents had rented for my 16th birthday into it about three times.

Of course, as I'd later discover, this room was purposely designed that way, meant to impress any visitors to Malfoy Manor. But as I saw the room for the first time, I only had one thought. And that was about how exactly this room was used.

No family, not even a super rich one, would have a room this big unless they planned on putting use to this room, or in other words, holding parties. Big ones, with lots of guests. And not just any guests. No, if I knew Lucius, he would be having Death Eater parties! It didn't help that these Death Eater parties could very easily include things I would much rather not see.

Now let me remind you of my worst fear, which just so happens to be parties. Well actually, that's a bit drastic. There was ONE party I wanted to go to. That was the Yule Ball that took place in my 3rd year, but of course I only wanted to go so I could dance with Harry. And did that happen? No!

Instead I made an embarrassment of myself dancing with Neville all night. I hadn't wanted to yes to him in the first place, but I knew it was my only way into the ball, plus his face was so hopeful that I just couldn't say no. I suspect that he'd asked about all the girls in his year that he knew (minus Slytherins) and I was something of a last resort.

But back to parties, I've always had a humongous fear of them. When I'm around family and friends, such as at my birthday parties and at the Yule Ball, it's not as bad, but parties including a majority of people that I didn't know always caused me to hurt or embarrass myself in some way.

I still remember the Ministry Ball my parents took me to when I was seven. I think that was when I developed my fear, though I'd never quite enjoyed parties. You see, Dad always got three tickets so him, Mum, and one of my brothers always went. We took turns. But this was the first year I was old enough to go, and boy was I excited! I spent the longest time begging my parents to let me get a new pair of dress robes just for the event.

Eventually they gave in, seeing how happy I was about the ball. The day of the Ministry Ball finally came, and I was in such a rush to get there I practically ripped my dress robes while getting them on.

The second we arrive at the party, a complete stranger walks up to me. She was probably a nice enough person, but I think I'll hate her forever for partially causing what happened next. She looked at me, grabbed my face in her hands, and went "awwwwww! What an adorable little girl! How old are you, dear? Why, you can't possibly be more than five. And what is your name? An angel like you must have quite the beautiful name!"

Now, I know she was just an over-friendly lady. And I was pretty small, so it would be easy to mistake me for a 5 year old. But at the time, all I could think was about how sick I was suddenly feeling. Being the center of attention was never my favorite thing, and this lady was talking so loudly that many people had turned around to stare at us.

I shudder when I remember what I did next. To put it shortly, I barfed. All over my gorgeous new dress robes. And that wasn't all. I barfed all over the lady's dress robes too. Everyone was staring at me in shock. It was a complete nightmare. My parents took me home, and I never went to another Ministry Ball again.

So you see, when I was already so upset about leaving my family, this room was the very worst thing for me to see. Also, if my fear of regular parties was big, my fear of parties involving Death Eaters was a zillion times bigger. Then I had the thought that Voldemort may even be attending some of these parties.

Quickly my thoughts became so panicked that I was sure Voldemort would walk in at any second to announce the big party being held the next day, which I would be forced to attend. I worked myself up so much that the second I heard footsteps I fainted. Yes, I right out fainted. Then the world faded away.

I'm not sure how long it'd been since I fainted, only that I woke up in THE most comfortable bed ever. Seriously, it was even better than the bed at Hogwarts, which I'd always thought was absolutely divine. If Malfoy's whole house was this great I wondered, then why does he even go back to Hogwarts?

But my good mood shattered when I saw who was right next to me. Lucius Malfoy, that's who! And he appeared happy that I had woken up. Only unlike normal people, when he was happy he looked as if he had just killed someone. It scared me enough that I almost dove right under the covers of the bed to hide from him. Thankfully though, I didn't.

"Ginevra," he said, "I see that you're finally awake. Great, now we may begin discussing a few things."

"Wait a second," I replied, "since when am I Ginevra? My name is Ginny, and that's what I would like to be called, please."

The words I said actually shocked me for a little. Had I really dared challenge Lucius Malfoy?

"Purebloods do not have any use for nicknames, Ginevra. Well, at least not respectable Purebloods. Anyway, the name on your birth certificate is Ginevra, and that is what you will be called from now on." This time Malfoy sounded annoyed. Good, I hoped he was really, incredibly annoyed at me. Maybe then he'd realize that I wasn't going to roll over and allow him to control me.

Yet even I didn't expect that I'd be so brave. "Are you trying to insult my family, Malfoy?" I asked angrily. "Well, if you're one of these so called respectable purebloods," I snorted, as if calling him respectable was some kind of joke, "than I have to wonder if respectable is really the right word to use. I mean it sure doesn't seem like a respectable person would kill others, claiming they're inferior simply because of their parents. And if that is the definition of respectable people, than I'd say that I'm quite fine being an unrespectable person. And by the way, the exact name on my birth certificate is Ginevra Weasley. Does that mean I can still be a Weasley?"

By now Malfoy almost had smoke coming out of his ears, he was that angry.

"In that case," I said, "I'll be leaving. I'd much prefer to be with my real family. But thanks for the bed, it was very comfortable."

I started getting out of the bed, but before I could get very far, Malfoy shoved me back onto the bed, looking even more menacing than before.

"Now listen to me, Ginevra!" He practically yelled at me. "I think we have a few rules to get straight! First of all, I will NOT tolerate being called anything but Father! No more Malfoy, and most certainly not an insulting name of any kind! Second, you will at ALL times be addressed as Ginevra! Even around your friends! And most importantly, never call yourself a Weasley! You are a Malfoy, and you WILL act like it!"

It's kind of hard to believe, but when I looked up at him to meet his eyes, I felt no fear at all. And even when I saw how angry they were, a sight, which at one point would probably have caused me to start crying from fear, all I felt was challenge. I wanted to show him that I wasn't going to give in.

Besides, I assured myself, he wouldn't hurt his own daughter.

But basically, my anger at him caused my shyness to disappear. Completely. And that was a very good thing too, because it would soon become clear that in this household, shyness was not really an option.

As soon as I was out of bed, Malfoy continued speaking. "Now, you must come meet the rest of your family. Then you and Narcissa can talk about the ball welcoming you to our family. The Welcome Ball will take place in about a week, and Narcissa would love to hear about any ideas you have for…"

I wasn't really listening though. I'd stopped hearing at the point that he'd mentioned the Welcome Ball. Oh no, I thought, there really is going to be a ball!

"…And of course the invitations still have to be sent. But there's no need to worry about people having previous plans. Everyone cancels anything standing in the way of a Malfoy ball." Suddenly he stopped. "Are you even listening to a word I'm saying?"

By now we'd started to walk, yet I couldn't feel my feet move. All I could do was think about the ball.

I couldn't believe it.

"Ginevra?"

It was WAY too horrible to be true.

"GINEVRA!"

I wasn't even there for a whole day, and already I was miserable.

"YOU LITTLE BRAT, ANSWER ME!"

This finally got my attention.

"What?" I asked.

"Why weren't you listening to me? I'll have you know that it is wise to always pay attention to what I am saying. There are consequences for those who don't." He said this all in a cold voice, and I could hear the threat in his words.

But by that point even words like those did not scare me. He'd yelled first, and called me a brat of all things, so I decided to yell back.

"I'll tell you why I wasn't listening! Because I refuse to go to any ball of yours, even if it's in my honor!"

Malfoy stared at me for a while. I don't think he was used to people going against him, which was what I'd been doing since the second I woke up. Then he began to speak.

"Okay, enough arguing. You will be going to that ball! I ORDER you to! But for now, let's meet Narcissa and Draco."

So I decided to be quiet. Fine, let him think he won, but I was still sure I wasn't going to the ball. He continued to talk, probably about other pointless rules, but I stopped listening. It's not like he actually deserved my attention. Occasionally I'd nod or say "yeah, of course." And he seemed to accept it.

As we walked, I looked at my surroundings. The things I noticed the most were the statues. Apparently each Malfoy got a statue made of him after his death. All the Malfoys had long snobby sounding names. Ginevra, a name that I'd always despised, was actually quite bearable compared to some of these names.

When I saw that some unlucky woman had been named, and yes, this is true, Jessalena Mortilacia Pamelira Kendilastra, I almost laughed right then and there. I was pretty sure that she'd had some very inventive parents. And I was just as sure that everyone was forced to call her this, since it seemed that the Malfoy's disapproved of nicknames. I bet people avoided using her name. I felt kind of sorry for her, until I remembered that she was probably as evil and manipulative as any other Malfoy I knew.

Excluding myself of course, but I still wasn't really counting myself as a Malfoy.

Finally, the walk reached its end. It was actually a bit disappointing. Reading the names had been the most fun I'd had since I'd arrived at Malfoy Manor. Without the statues to distract me, I was forced to listen to Malfoy.

"…And here's the room. Narcissa will be so glad. I know she's been especially excited about your arrival. She's always wanted a daughter and now she finally has one. It's quite a miracle that we've managed to save you from the Weasleys. What a horrible family, to take a baby from us, as if they didn't have enough already. "

I walked into the room, acting normally, but inside I was annoyed. So he's trying to turn me against my family, I realized. I knew very well how exactly I had come to be part of the Weasleys, and it was NOT because they'd stolen me. I was sure that Malfoy knew this. I mean he would've noticed Narcissa's stomach getting bigger and everything.

So after fainting, and then putting up with insult after insult, I was in about as bad of a mood as you can get. I was ready to destroy the entire family.

Controlling my anger, I prepared to show the rest of the family just who I was. I was Ginny Weasley NOT Ginevra Malfoy. And I was going to let them know.

I hope this chapter was interesting enough. I certainly enjoyed writing it, especially Ginny's new attitude. As you can see, Ginny is realizing that speaking out has quite a few perks. Please, please review and tell me what I'm doing wrong and what you like about it! Seeing reviews makes me so happy and also inspires me to write. Thank you for reading!

Bye bye!


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